The British Isles separated from the European continent approximately 8,000 years ago. For this Brexit there was no referendum or bus, no Leavers or Remainers, nor was it hard or soft. This was a watery Brexit as rising sea levels filled the Channel and created the North Sea. Maritime archaeology is revealing this submerged landscape that once connected the continent to Britain. 大约在8000 年前，不列颠群岛从欧洲大陆分离。英国脱欧不存在全民公决，或是公交车模式，不存在离去者也不存在存留者，它既非硬性也非软性。如同上升的海平面填没了英吉利海峡，创造出了北海。海洋地质学正在揭示欧洲大陆曾一度连接着英国的海底景观。

Earth is a dynamic planet that is constantly changing. Going back far enough in time, Britain has been separated from the continent several times as sea levels changed. However, for the study of Homo sapiensit is the change at end of the Pleistocene and the start of the Holocene epoch 11,700 years ago that is most interesting. 地球是一个有活力的行星。它在不断变化。追溯到足够遥远的年代，由于海平面的变化，英国已经从欧洲大陆分离了几次。无论如何，人类从研究中得知11700 年前，地球更新世的结束和全新世的开始带来的变化是最有趣的。

Throughout the Pleistocene, sea levels rose and fell in response to climate fluctuations. During cold periods, often known as Ice Ages, glaciers contained a great deal of water, lowering global sea levels. You might not have recognised Europe during these periods with its far larger surface area. It would have been possible to walk from Copenhagen to London on dry land. The North Sea and the English Channel contained a fertile landscape with several large European rivers where the humans lived and hunted. In fact, humans were not the only hominins to reach what became the Isles, but also Homo antecessor, Homo heidelbergensis,and the Neanderthals. At Happisburgh in Norfolk, Homo antecessorfootprints dating to 800,000 years ago were found exposed on a beach after a storm. 整个更新世，海平面上升下降以回应气候波动。寒冷时期通常被称为冰河时期。这个时期的冰川包含着大量的水使全球的海平面下降。你们不可能识别那时宽大的欧洲表面积。那时期，有可能人可以在干地面上从哥本哈根走到伦敦。北海和英吉利海峡拥有肥沃的土地和几条欧洲大河，以供人们生活和狩猎。事实上，不仅古人类到达了不列颠群岛，而且，先驱人，海德堡人，尼安德特人都来过。暴风雨过后，在诺福克郡内的哈比斯堡之处可以发现海滩上暴露的先驱人足迹。

Some of the oldest human footprints in the world were found in silt on the Norfolk coast in 2014. Photograph: British Museum/PA 世界上最早的部分人类足迹于2014年诺福克郡海岸上的淤泥里被发现。

After the last Ice Age, the Earth began to warm approximately 18,000 years ago and sea levels rose over a hundred meters as the melting glaciers released water into the oceans. This global effect is called eustatic sea level change and the process more or less ended 5,000 years ago. While there is some sea level change due to isostatic movement, tectonic activity, and compression of sediments, it is beginning in this period that the Earth broadly looks as it does today. 大约18000年前，最后的冰川期之后，地球开始变暖，由于冰川融化的水注入海洋，海平面上升超过100 米。这个全球效应被称为海平面升降变化。这个过程结束于5000年前。海平面的变化归因于地球均衡运动；构造活动性和沉积物压缩。从那时开始至今，地球大概地被看做今天这个状态。

Maritime archaeology has sought evidence of these drowned “paleolandscapes” around the world. Perhaps the most incredible example in Europe is Cosquer Cave near Marseille, France. Divers found the cave entrance at 37 meters, but as they explored the passages they discovered an air pocket at sea level. Preserved on the walls were paintings from 27,000-19,000 years ago from the time when the entire cave system was above the Pleistocene sea level and ancient people used the cave for religious rituals. 海洋考古学已经找到世上被淹没的远古景观。或许最难以置信的欧洲例子就是法国靠近马赛的洞穴。潜水员们离洞穴入口37米处的探索通道的海面上发现一个气袋。洞穴内墙上保存着 27000 至 19000 年以前的绘画。那时整个洞穴系统在更新世时期的海平面以上。古人们使用这些洞穴来举行宗教仪式。

Archaeologists are now looking toward the English Channel and North Sea for evidence of drowned landscapes. “Many people may not realise that much of the North Sea was once dry land,” says Dr Rachel Bynoe. “These now-drowned landscapes contain important information about the lives of our ancestors from the Palaeolithic all the way through until the Neolithic period.” Finding sites in the North Sea is like finding a needle in a haystack, but Bynoe and her colleagues use a novel approach combining old and new methods. The seafloor is being mapped using the latest ocean survey equipment to find ancient riverbeds and other landscape features. Since the 19th century fishermen have found bones of Pleistocene animals such as mammoths in their nets. As she recently published in Antiquity, Bynoe combines the data from the fishing fleets with the seafloor maps to try to identify intact Pleistocene layers on the seafloor. 现在，考古学家正期待着英吉利海峡和北海出现淹没的风景地貌的证据。蕾切尔 拜努博士认为；许多人不可能意识到北海许多区域曾经是干地。这些现在已淹没的风景地貌包含着有关的所有从旧石器时代到新石器时代我们祖先生活的重要信息。在北海中找寻遗址如同在干草堆里找一根针。但是，拜努和她的同事们使用一种新异的途径，结合了新旧方法，用最新的测量设备描绘海底地图，发现远古河床和其他风景地貌特征。自19世纪以来，渔民们已经发现更新世时期的动物骨骼。例如，他们用渔网捕到的猛犸象骨骼。最近，拜努在《古物》杂志里发表了文章，她利用海底地图，结合着来自渔船的数据设法鉴定海底更新世层。

One site that is changing our understanding of the past is Bouldnor Cliff off the Isle of Wight. Discovered in 1999 when a lobster was seen pushing stone tools out of its burrow, the Maritime Archaeology Trust has conducted annual excavations on the site that dates to 8,000 years ago. At a depth of 11 metres below sea level, the archaeologists have found tools, wooden artefacts, and even the oldest piece of string. The biggest discovery was made in 2015 and published in Science. DNA from the sediments on site contained wheat DNA, suggesting that wheat products were imported to Britain before wheat was cultivated in the country approximately 2,000 years later. The research is helping to understand the transition from Mesolithic hunter-gathers to the farmers of the Neolithic. 一个正在改变我们过去观念的地点是脱离怀特岛的博尔德诺悬崖。1999年有人曾看见一只龙虾在它洞穴外推着石头工具。海洋考古信托公司分析了在这个距今有8000多年地点的年度挖掘状况。在海平面以下11米处，考古学家们已经发现了工具，木质文物，以及最古老的琴弦。2015年的最大考古发现已经发表在科学杂志上了。这个地点沉积物的DNA含有麦子DNA，这暗示道；小麦产品被进口到英国后大约2000多年，才有人开始在英国种植小麦。这个研究帮助我们理解中石器时代的狩猎团体向新石器时代农民过度的迹象。

It is the area known as Doggerland which perhaps hold the greatest potential. This submerged region of 17,000 km2 around Dogger Bank is located in the middle of the North Sea and it once connected Britain to Scandinavia. Professor Vince Gaffney and a team from the University of Bradford have undertaken an ambitious project to explore the area using the latest technology. “Although archaeologists have known for a long time that ancient climatic change and sea level rise must mean that Doggerland holds unique and important information about early human life in Europe, until now we have lacked the tools to investigate this area properly,” he said in a statement. The multi-year project was awarded ?2.5 million to conduct seafloor mapping and modelling to predict where sites may be located, as well as analyse DNA from sediments, similar to Bouldnor Cliff. 它是一块名叫多格兰，可能保存着最大潜能的地区。这片17000平方公里水下区域位于北海中部环绕多格海岸。它曾一度将英国和斯堪的纳维亚半岛连接在一起。文斯 盖夫尼教授和一支来自布拉德福德大学的团队已经接手了一项野心勃勃的计划；用最新技术探索这块区域。盖夫尼教授用陈述语气说：“虽然考古学家很早就知道远古时期的气候变化和海平面上升，这务必意味着多格兰地区保存着有关欧洲早期人类生活的唯一重要信息，但是，迄今为止我们仍缺乏工具，不能恰当的调查这个地区”。这个多年的项目获得2百50万欧元的奖励。绘制海底地图，建模预测调查地点的可能位置，而且还要从沉积物中分析DNA，与博尔诺悬崖的工作相似。

A Bronze Age structure, which became known as Seahenge, a 4,000-year-old timber circle found in Norfolk. Photograph: Michael Walter/PA 一种被称为巨石阵的青铜器时代的构造，有人在诺福克郡发现的4000年前的一种木制圆形物。

Several sites hints at what might lie hidden in Doggerland. “Seahenge” and a second wooden henge have been found on the Norfolk foreshore facing the submerged landscape of Doggerland. Constructed of wood and dating to over 4,000 years ago, the sites tell of past cultures confronted with a changing world. 有几处地点暗示多格兰隐藏着古物。有人在诺福克郡的前滩，面对多格兰水下景观之处发现了巨石阵和一种圆形木结构。这些被发现的木制物件的年代距今超过4000年。这些地点讲述着古代文明如何面对一个不断变化的世界。

The first Brexit separated the British Isles from the continent and set the nations of the islands on a separate trajectory from their European counterparts. Now archaeology is uncovering the land that allowed the earliest inhabitants to reach what would one day become Britain. 英国首次脱欧，建立起与欧洲大陆相对应的单独运行轨迹的岛屿国家。现在，考古学正在揭示最早期的居民如何到达，之后又如何在某一天成为不列颠国的这块土地。